The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

On February 13, a reception in honor of the departing consul of the People’sRepublic of China in Kabul was held at the Chinese embassy. Starostin was present at thereception and conducted some intelligence work there. He met with “Van,” a person ofgreat interest to him. He received information regarding the Islamic Revolution from theIranian consul, Deeb (who happened to be a distant relative of the wife of the overthrownshah). He had some other useful conversations with diplomats from embassies of bothlarge and small countries. While smoothly moving from one conversation to another,Valery was stopped by Louisa Turko, the wife of an American diplomat who wasconsidered by Soviet intelligence to be the CIA resident in Kabul. Louisa said that she hadonce been very interested in archaeology and asked when and where she could meet withSarianidi. Starostin, pretending that the famous archaeologist was his best friend, said thathe would do his best to arrange a meeting and promised to inform her about the logisticsthe following morning.In the morning of February 14, Starostin arrived at the embassy a little later thanusual. The workday was already in full swing. Valery peeked into the Protocol Section togreet his friends and to receive an update. The Protocol staff looked both excited andalarmed. One of them whispered that the American ambassador, Dubs, had been capturedby terrorists. Another produced an envelope from the U.S. embassy addressed to Starostin.Moving towards the common room of the KGB Residence, Valery bumped into one of hiscolleagues. He told Starostin that the resident had been looking for him, and recommendedhe stop by Osadchiy’s office. Starostin immediately went to see the resident.Vilior Gavrilovich seemed extremely anxious, but welcomed Valery with a smile. Hepolitely gestured for Valery to sit and wait while he finished a conversation with Sergei296